Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Here is the reason I have been non-existent on my blog for the last few months! We bought a new home and took possession on December 14th. We moved in on the 15th, had four days to be out of our old house before we closed on the its sale, Amelia turned one on the 20th and then there was Christmas and both boys’ birthdays in January. It has been a whirlwind. Things are finally starting to settle down so hopefully I’ll be able to post more frequently but I’ve certainly said that before…

I am still alive, even though I haven’t posted in nearly four months. Stitching has been minimal but I’ve gotten some in here and there. I’ve missed three months of updates but I’m planning to check in for the June WIPocalypse hopefully. Life is good overall, just really busy. I’m back working full time, either from home or bringing Amelia with me to the office. It’s going really well, but I don’t have much free time. Logan is talking up a storm and Luke has his 5th grade promotion tomorrow…then it’s on to middle school. Pictures will come soon…really…

Somehow I’ve managed to do a little bit of stitching with a toddler and a baby…I know as Amelia gets older it will get harder, but since I can stitch while she nurses right now (and she nurses a lot at this age) I have been able to stitch whenever I’m not trying to keep Logan from jumping on her. I’ve only stitched on two projects since the last post, one of them was a finish, LHN’s “Hallelujah” ornament, finished 1/30/12:

The other is Chatelaine’s Medieval Town Mandala. This is going to go in my living room when I finally finish it and I really love working on it:

I have a day at home without Logan here so that means I can actually get onto a computer! It’s easy enough to nurse while I type, and that’s mostly all Amelia does at this point when she isn’t sleeping. I’m planning to add more pictures of the kids from Christmas and all, but they are (slooooooooowly) uploading to flickr right now so I figured I’d type up my WIPocalypse list for the SAL that Measi has organized.

1. “Nova” by Genny Morrow, 44% done

2. “Mermaid Treasure Box” by Chatelaine, less than 5% done

3. “Mystery 4” by Chatelaine, 40% done

4. “Taj Mahal Garden” by Chatelaine, 18% done

5. “The Guardian” by Teresa Wentzler, 12% done

6. “Footprints” by Teresa Wentzler, 12% done

7. “25 Days” by Sam Sarah Designs, 85% done
Top of banner:

Bottom of banner:

Ornaments:

8. “Quilt Mystery” by Chatelaine, 26% done

(squares 1-4 done, this is square 5 progress)

9. “Venice Mandala” by Chatelaine, less than 5% done

10. “Augusta” by Mystic Stitch, less than 5% done

11. “Twilight Pearls Leaf Ball” by Just Nan, 5% done

12. “Nativity Kit” by Janlynn, 30% done

Nativity overall before last 2010 progress:

Wiseman after last 2010 progress:

13. “Blooming with Inspiration” by Blue Ribbon Designs, 5% done

14. “Hanky Pysanky” by Ink Circles, 15% done

15. “Hawaiian Garden Mandala” by Chatelaine, 33% done

16. “Medieval Town Mandala” by Chatelaine, less than 5% done

17. “Hallelujah” by Little House Needleworks, 5% done

My plans are to not start any new projects until I get under 15 WIPs, with one exception. Spot 17, “Hallelujah” is my only small travel piece. When I finish it I can replace it with another small travel piece, etc. No medium or larger starts until I get under 15 WIPs.

Okay, I’ve updated my post now to include pictures of everything that I have started. Aside from small ornament-sized projects, I don’t plan to have any new starts this year, so my list is pretty much complete!

I’m only a week behind in writing this post, miraculously. Amelia Cheryl was born on her due date, December 20, at 7:08am after an uncomplicated and very quick home waterbirth. She was 8lbs 2oz and 20 inches long. Everything went really quickly; I’d had early labor the two nights before but the day before things fizzled out so I was reluctant to call the midwife in case the same happened again. Fortunately we DID go ahead and call around 4:45…by the time she got there at 5:30 there wasn’t a whole lot of time waiting around! Everything about the homebirth experience was better than the two previous hospital birth experiences I’d had with the boys and I’m so thankful Tom was willing to step out of his comfort zone and give it a chance.

I’m posting this from my phone so I’ll try to post a picture but I haven’t in awhile so it may take a couple tries. The past week has been a whirlwind, with Christmas and all. I’m exhausted and the baby and I both have the cold that everyone else had either before or on Christmas. Hopefully it will pass quickly! Adjusting to life with a newborn and a toddler is…interesting enough without a cold thrown into the mix.

Despite my best intentions I’ve been awful about keeping up on my blog! Here’s a brief re-cap of where things stand these days:

I’m due tomorrow with child #3, girl. I’m really hoping she’ll grace us with her presence prior to Christmas, but who knows. With both of the boys having been born 8 days past their due dates I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much on that. I’m almost done with her Christmas stocking; here’s the most recent picture I’ve taken though it’s pretty old now:

I also finished Victoria Sampler’s Heirloom Christmas Sampler for the second time awhile back:

Top half:

Bottom half:

Logan finally got a haircut but I haven’t uploaded any pictures yet since then (I’ve taken some but they’re still in my camera). Here’s one of the last pictures I have with his long “baby” hair:

And here’s one of both boys:

I’ve actually been doing a lot of stitching lately but I haven’t taken recent pictures…someday I guess. I suppose this is where I say I’ll try to be better about updating my blog, but knowing how the last couple years have gone it may be sporadic for awhile still!

I have a few minutes while I’m cooking dinner and waiting for Tom to get home with Logan (it’s so hard to do anything on the computer with Logan here!) so I will quickly get some stitching photos added! I’m almost done with Japanese Garden; this picture is actually out of date because I finished the stitching and started beading a couple days ago! It’s been four years since I finished a big Chatelaine piece so I’m really excited to be so close:

I’ve also been working on a Christmas stocking for the baby girl we are expecting in December. This is an older progress picture as well as I’ve done more since it was taken, but anyway here it is:

I’ve had a couple finishes this year that I never posted on my blog as well. I finished Drawn Thread’s “Flower Boxes” awhile back:

And I finished the Dinky Dyes’ “Celtic Tuffet” and even finished it into the tuffet shape:

And one final work in progress…I’ve finished the ornaments for SamSarah’s “Twenty Five Days”. Well, I finished the stitching anyway; I haven’t actually finished any of them into ornaments yet and I’m still working on the banner itself:

And with that I think I’m caught up on stitching pictures! Hopefully I’ll have a finished Japanese Garden to share soon!!

I guess I haven’t been so great about updating my blog, even with the app on my iphone. It’s a pain because there isn’t an easy way to get pictures from flickr; I have to save them on my phone and then upload them to the blog, and I guess I’m lazy. I have a few minutes at home this morning while I eat breakfast though, so I thought I’d try and write for a change.

The last couple nights have been rough; Logan is working on his 2 year molars and it is hell. He is 19 months today; I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone! For anyone who I haven’t told already, either myself or through facebook or a bulletin board, we are expecting one more in December. We found out last week that we will be having a girl and we are definitely done after that!!

We’ve been up to all sorts of things since I posted last, although I spent 13 straight weeks sick pretty much every day and only started feeling better around week 19. Right around that time we went up to visit several of my relatives in northern California, via Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We discovered that Logan is a hiking machine!! Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Sequoia and Kings Canyon:

Visit with Family:

Hiking to Shealor Lake in the Sierras:

Sutter’s Mill:

It was a great trip, but as usual, too short!

I have a ton I should do around the house and then off to work, so I’ll save my stitching updates for later. Hopefully it won’t take months for me to get to those…

Well, I didn’t intend to go months without blogging yet again. I can even blog from my phone now. I just haven’t gotten into a routine with it again, I guess. So…what have we been up to the last few months? Well, we went to Arizona for spring break in April and visited some of Tom’s relatives. Luke and Logan enjoyed a trip to Tombstone and we went hiking in the Chiricahua national monument which was really great.

Logan has a pretty sweet ride for hiking trips:

I’ve even managed to do a fair amount of stitching lately! I’ve been making good progress on Chatelaine’s Japanese Garden:

I also finished another project for the year, Mirabilia’s Valentine Fairy:

We’ve been busy with school stuff and sports and scouts and I am really looking forward to some downtime this summer. Hopefully it won’t be another three months before I manage to post again!